At the NewPages Blog readers and writers can catch up with their favorite literary and alternative magazines, independent and university presses, creative writing programs, and writing and literary events. Find new books, new issue announcements, contest winners, and so much more!
The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought Winter 2026 issue is themed “Authenticity in the AI Age” and features articles such as “AUTHOR or SCRIBE: Authenticity and AI, a minor matter?” by Michael Hogan, “Generative AI and Equity: False Friends” by David Ebenbach, “AI-Generated Virtual Influencers: An Ethical Call to Action” by Heather Walters, “Living in a Technoliberal Paradise?: Utopian and Evangelistic Rhetoric in Tech’s AI Marketing” by Samantha Schubert, “Artificial Intelligence as Agent in Journalism: A Concept Explication” by Chad Owsley, “Artificial Intelligence, Debate, and Education” by Nicholas Lepp and Kavneer Majhail and “The Cracks Are Where the Light Seeps In: An Interview with ChatGPT about Plagiarism” by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer – among still more essays. The issue also includes a portfolio of sixteen new poems by Roland Sodowsky with an introduction by Laura Lee Washburn.
The Winter 2025 issue of The Missouri Review (48.4) is themed “Strange Bedfellows” and includes the winners of the 2025 Perkoff Prize for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as debut fiction from Jeanne Rogow and Laura Dedmon. Additionally, there is new fiction from Rachel Lastra, new poetry from William Virgil Davis and Sascha Feinstein, essays from Lauren Fath and Askold Melnyczuk, and articles on Jules Chéret and Anna Pavlova. Also inside: an omnibus review of three novels about the future from Luke Dunne, and an interview with the fiction writer Curtis Sittenfield.
Happy Friday — or as happy as a Friday the thirteenth can be. If you’re feeling superstitious and would rather avoid today’s bad‑luck vibes by staying home with a mug of something warm, we’ve got you covered. NewPages is back with our weekly roundup of submission opportunities, plus a little spark of inspiration to get those creative juices flowing.
Inspiration Prompt: It Just Takes Time…or A Jug of Moonshine
While reading the inaugural issue of Poetry Midwest, Paul Hostovsky’s poem “Flents” stopped me in my tracks. Perhaps it’s because my own grandfather passed away this past December, but the poem’s shift in perspective felt especially resonant.
In the poem, Paul Hostovsky recalls being fascinated as a boy by his father’s “Flents”—waxy, bite-sized lumps molded to the shape of his father’s ear canals. At thirteen and a half, they were novelties, curious mementos of the man himself. It wasn’t until Hostovsky reached the age his father was when he passed away that Hostovsky’s perspective changed. He realized those Flents weren’t just objects, but shields his father used to endure the very rock music Hostovsky once blasted through the house while his father lay in bed dying.
Perspective is a living thing—rarely objective, and always subject to change.
Submissions open now until May for NONFICTION manuscripts and pitches!
The Beautiful Pause Prize held by Press Pause Press is a yearly prize of $1,000 and the print publication of a full-length manuscript awarded to a writer (18 years and older) of exceptional talent and heart.
One runner-up will receive $500 and publication of an excerpt in one of the Press Pause biannual print volumes.
Submissions are open for NONFICTION manuscripts and pitches through May 1, 2026.
Check out the contest guidelines for additional criteria and helpful information about pitching Press Pause Press. Submit when you’re ready but do not delay!
Press Pause is a quiet literary magazine avoiding social media, fostering reflection, publishing biannual volumes, annual prize manuscripts, and books.
For this week’s newsletter prompt, I opted not to dive into music, movies, dramas, or literature (in the fullest sense), but instead wanted to explore something I have experienced more often than I would like to admit: auditory illusions. Whether from caretaker trauma, the memory of a voice calling my name in the middle of the night, or those moments in crowded places when I swear someone has spoken to me—only to find no one nearby.
That got me thinking about a poem I loved in my college creative writing class, Naomi Shihab Nye’s ‘The Words Under the Words.’ I also found myself thinking about Jane Arden’s classic song ‘Insensitive,’ which explores a different—but related—kind of echo.
Inspiration Prompt: Auditory Illusions
Have you ever heard your name called in an empty house? Or listened to a cat cry and, for a split second, felt your body insist it sounded like a human infant? These uncanny moments aren’t just tricks of the ear—they’re invitations to listen for what else might be speaking.
Naomi Shihab Nye asks whether we can hear “the words under the words.” Auditory illusions—those misheard fragments, phantom echoes, or emotional reverberations—often point toward that deeper layer. They reveal the private logic of the mind, the meanings we continue to translate even when nothing external is making a sound.
And then there’s the kind of auditory haunting Jane Arden names in “Insensitive”: the voice you can’t stop hearing long after the relationship has ended. It lingers not because you want it back, but because your nervous system memorized it. The cadence remains long after the conversation is over. That too is an illusion of sorts—memory performing its own echo chamber—another version of “the words under the words,” the layer we continue to interpret long after the speaker has gone.
This week’s prompt asks you to explore that deeper space: the gap between what is heard and what is felt, between the literal sound and the emotional frequency beneath it. Writing into those gaps is an act of faith—faith that the surface layer isn’t the whole story, faith that something underneath is asking to be recognized.
Why We Hear What Isn’t There
Auditory illusions emerge where perception and emotion collide. We mishear because of:
Longing or Grief
The mind reaches for a familiar frequency—a lost loved one’s voice, a phrase that once meant safety.
Trauma
The world sharpens, and every sound becomes coded with urgency or threat.
Desire
We hear the “yes” in the static because part of us needs it to be there.
These “mis-hearings” aren’t errors; they’re insights. They reveal a character’s internal landscape more clearly than any literal description could.
3 Tips for Writing Sound, Silence, and the Unheard
1. Write the Subtext Literally
If your scene has two layers—a polite, surface-level exchange and a charged emotional undercurrent—try writing both. Put the spoken words on the page, and let the internal monologue or sensory interpretation run beneath it. The friction becomes the drama.
2. Use Onomatopoeia Sparingly—But Write the Physicality of Sound
Avoid the easy “Bang!” or “Clack!” Instead, describe how the sound lands in the body. Does it thud like a heartbeat? Buzz like anxiety? Vibrate in the teeth? The physical response is often more revealing than the noise itself.
3. Lean Into the Uncanny
The most compelling auditory illusions are almost right—but not quite. A voice that sounds like a familiar friend but lacks their usual warmth. Footsteps that mimic someone’s gait but drag just a little too long. Let your reader feel the uncanniness.
Listening for What’s Beneath
Each week, through prompts like this, we explore how perception—especially misperception—can reveal the deeper story. Whether you’re writing about phantom calls, remembered voices, or conversations with two layers, the goal remains the same:
Listen for the words under the words. The message beneath the sound. The truth beneath the illusion.
If you want prompts like this delivered each week—along with news about book releases, new lit mag issues, bookstore updates, and a carefully curated list of submission opportunities—consider subscribing to our weekly newsletter!
The February issue of The Lake, online journal of poetry and poetics, is now available to read open access. Readers can enjoy new works by Clive Donovan, Tom Kelly, Andy Humphrey, Fish Lu, Dana Holley Maloney, Bruach Mhor, Kate Noakes, Fred Pollack, Fiona Sincliar, Rachel Wild. The Lake also offers reviews of recent books, this month spotlights Charles Rammelkamp’s review of Dementia Lyrics by Dennis Hinrichsen. ‘One Poem Reviews,’ a unique feature in which poets allow The Lake to publish a sample poem from a recently published collection, includes works by Laura Daniels, Jeremy Gadd, Lance Mazmanian, J.R. Solonche, and Davie Earl Williams.
The Andrew Wyeth Chronicles by Janée J. Baugher Tupelo Press, February 2026
Winner of the Dorset Prize for Poetry, selected by Shane McCrae, The Andrew Wyeth Chronicles by Janée J. Baugher presents an imaginative narrative of the painter’s creative life, rife with both losses and pleasures. Baugher employs the footnote form to write a book-length narrative of ekphrastic poetry in which the character of Andrew Wyeth chronicles his internal musings. The sixty-three Wyeth paintings that influenced these poems (dated 1938 through 2008) are the ones in which Baugher delighted in how the quotidian is made tender, like a white sheet drying outside on the line or sunflowers’ shadows against a house. Studying the work of this particular artist was a decades-long meditative practice of deep-looking, a method by which the author detaches from her ego. Wyeth’s paintings, drawings, and watercolors became portals through which she could imagine worlds beyond her immediate awareness and in which she could explore linguistic possibilities.
Happy Friday and welcome to February! We’ve officially made it through the first week of a new month. Here in Michigan, February arrived with an unexpected warm spell (20s after negative temperatures definitely counts as a heat wave, right?) after January delivered its fair share of subarctic drama. Winter, of course, isn’t finished with us yet.
If the weather outside your window isn’t especially inviting, NewPages has plenty to keep you inspired indoors. This week’s roundup features dozens of new and ongoing submission opportunities, along with a creative writing prompt designed to help you shake loose any lingering writer’s block.
Inspiration Prompt: A Penny for Your Thoughts
Writing exercises aren’t about perfection. They’re about momentum.
Think of them as rough drafts of the mind: fragments, sparks, half-formed ideas that exist simply to get words moving. Sometimes, it’s those unpolished scraps that become the pieces we return to later and think, Ah. There’s something here.
(If you’re anything like us, that explains the notebooks, documents, and folders full of unfinished starts and fragments from who knows where.)
This week, we’re trying something a little different with a response-based writing prompt.
The Spark
Read the following lines from a work-in-progress and let them sit with you for a moment. Don’t worry about original context. Let the words become something new in your hands.
“Mercy, mercy,” quoth he. “Please have mercy on me!”
Why should I mercy show when you yourself have none?”
“Why, milady, to prove that you are the better one!”
“Aye and to prove that I am, a secret I shall let thee know…there is no mercy for the damned.”
And in one fell swoop she struck the killing blow.
Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine is devoted to publishing quality work that doesn’t merely strike a familiar chord but enriches our experience. The Fall/Winter 2025 issue offers tribute to Peter Solet, poetry staff reader and founding member of SBLAAM who passed away late last year.
The issue invites readers to experience new fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and visual imagery from Marie Manilla, Pamela Schoenewaldt, Megan Trihey, Joe Greco, James Irwin, Marie-Andree Auclair, Carol Booth, Hannah Genevieve Cornell, Mohsen hosseinkhani, Garrett Phelan, Linda Scheller, Enid Cokinos, Donald L Patten, and many more.
Smoky Blue Literary an Arts Magazine (SBLAAM) is a sponsored project of Creative Aging Network-NC, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
Published by Washington & Lee University and supporting poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, comic artists, and translators since 1950, the online Fall 2025 issue of Shenandoah introduces a new series called “Catalyst,” profiling people whose craft — defined broadly — advances justice and equality. The first conversation in this series is “’Reading is a subversive act’: Shenandoah interviews Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor – Elect Ghazala Hashmi.”
The issue also features an interview with visual artist Kristen Mills and Hope Prize Winner Isaac Kanyinji’s “A 2019 Survey on How People Imagine Themselves Dying.”
The rest of the issue includes fiction by N.S. Ahmed, leena aboutaleb, Muhammad El-Hajj (trans. Yasmine Zohdi), Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim, Jeneé Skinner, Swati Sudarsan; poetry by Tran Tran, Sayuri Matsuura Ayers, Apollo Chastain, Ali Choudhary, Prosper Ifeanyi, Dabin Jeong, Nicole W. Lee, Kabel Mishka Ligot, Susanna Rich, River, Sarp Sozdinler, Para Vadhahong, Teri Vela, nonfiction by Nancy Bell, Youssef Rakha, Tracy Rothschild Lynch, Christy Tending, Wenyi Xiao; and comics by Mariah Gese, Joel Holub, Parisa Karami, and Audrey Odang.
Winter—especially in certain parts of the world—has a way of making everything feel stark and stripped down. Colors drain out of the landscape. Days shorten. The world contracts into muted tones: white skies, black branches, long shadows. In that kind of environment, it’s easy to start thinking in binaries. Some days, a life lived in clean lines—black or white—might even seem comforting.
But the world refuses to stay that simple. Even in winter, gray takes over: soft clouds, slushy streets, the blur where sunlight meets storm. Life, too, lives in these overlaps. Messy, chaotic, layered—not always in bad ways. And that’s where this week’s newsletter prompt was born.
Inspiration Prompt: It’s a Gray World After All
We often crave a binary world. We search for the “right” word, the clear hero or villain, the correct ending. It’s human nature to long for the neatness of black and white—a world of zeros and ones, where every choice is absolute.
But as every writer eventually discovers, the magic lives in the smudge.
The Beauty of the Blur
Strip away the extremes and you find gray. Visually, gray is where texture emerges. In stories, gray is where humanity resides. Think of the moment a character recognizes their enemy’s humanity, or when a perfect plan begins to fray.
That shift—from stark contrast to subtle gradation—isn’t just visual. It’s emotional. It marks the moment certainty dissolves.
Writing Exercise: The Gray World
Imagine a world governed strictly by absolutes. Then allow something to break it.
The Catalyst: What sparks the first smudge? A confession? A discovery? A quiet internal shift?
The Sensation: How does gray feel to someone who has only ever known black and white? Is it confusing? Liberating? Dangerous?
The Scene: Write the moment certainty unravels. Use sensory detail—softening borders, deepening shadows, a voice that finally admits, “I don’t know.”
Let this be the space where your characters learn to live.
Pro Tips for the Blank Page
The Color-Coding Craft Tip (Practical + Insightful)
If you want to check whether your writing leans too heavily into “binary” thinking, try this visual exercise:
💡 The Gray-Scale Audit: Take a page from your current draft and highlight moments that represent “black and white” thinking—clear good/bad, yes/no, confident/absolute—in one color. Then highlight the “gray” moments—hesitation, mixed emotions, blurred boundaries—in another.
If the page is overwhelmingly one color, try finding a single line where you can introduce a smudge of complexity.
The Sensory Gray List (Expansive + Fun)
If you’re tired of using the word gray itself, expand your descriptive palette with adjacent textures and tones:
✨ Beyond “Gray”:
Metals: pewter, gunmetal, tarnished silver
Nature: flint, river stone, morning mist, woodsmoke, dove’s wing
These alternatives give you the nuance of “grayness” without repeating the word.
The Playlist Tip (Atmospheric + Immersive)
Music is an easy way to shift yourself into a more liminal creative space.
🎧 Soundboarding the Blur: Try writing with lo-fi beats, ambient rain, or minimalist piano (think Erik Satie). These borderless, low-structure sounds keep the brain from snapping into rigid patterns and help you drift into a more exploratory, nuanced headspace.
Never Miss a Spark
If this prompt inspires you, there’s more where it came from. Writing may be a solitary craft, but you don’t have to navigate the gray areas alone.
New releases from emerging and established lit mags
Fresh books to add to your radar
Updates from indie bookstores and literary spaces
Curated submission opportunities
Don’t wait for the blank page to stare back. Join our community and keep the creative momentum moving forward.
P.S. If you write something based on this prompt, tag us on social media or reply to our next newsletter—we’d love to see where the gray world takes you!
The Common Issue 30 opens with Editor Jennifer Acker’s celebration of The Common’s 15th Anniversary and closes with an interview with Teju Cole, “The Epiphany in the Ordinary.” There is also a special portfolio of art and poetry from Ukraine; short stories from Morocco, Canada, Maine, Phoenix, and Cape Cod; essays about the body and a ruined city in the Argentine Pampas; and poems on art, dance, family, waiting, and loss from Wyatt Townley, Robert Cording, Lawrence Joseph, Anna Maria Hong, and more.
“Writing is power because it can provide hope. This is why, throughout history, tyrants have always come for the poets first; a populace is much easier to terrorize and subjugate without the flame of hope sustaining them.” ~ Sky IslandJournal Editors
Readers and writers searching for a source of hope and resistance against oppression need only click to join Sky Island Journal’s global, fearless community. In their introduction to Issue 34, the editors affirm their pledge to keep literature freely accessible, independent from political or commercial pressures, and dedicated to empathy, freedom, and hope. “Art creates empathy. Empathy creates kindness. Kindness creates strength. This is our purpose, and we will not stop. This is our mission, and we will not fail.”
Upholding the Sky Island Journal mission in the newest issue are contributors Alina Kalontarov, Allison Mei-Li, Annalise Parady, Anne Ramallo, Athena Serbourne, Bex Hainsworth, Bray McDonald, Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas, Christian Knoeller, Dara Goodale, Dick Altman, Elda Oreto, Elizabeth Rosen, Filiz Fish, Gabrielle Munslow, Grace Crouthamel, Grace Lynn, Inez Chong, J.M.C. Kane, Jay Udall, Jessica Aure Pratt, Jillian Stacia, Jocelyn Ajami, John Muro, Katy Luxem, Ken Malatesta, Kiana McCrackin, Kristen Keckler, Kristen Reece, Lin Fay, Marisha Kashyap, Michael Brookbank, Michael J. Galko, Morrow Dowdle, Nicole Dalcourt, Olga Khmara, Parineeta Habib, R.H. Booker, Rachel Lauren Myers, Rachel M. Hollis, Rachel Mallalieu, Robin Zastrow, Sheree Stewart Combs, Susmita Mukherjee, Wasima Khan, Yuening Weng, Zoe Culbertson, and Zoleikha Baloch.
The inaugural issue of The Dolomite Review is now available to read open access online and also offers e-subscriptions so readers will not miss each new quarterly issue of poetry, short stories, and essays. The Dolomite Review welcomes writers of every level of experience, from novice to master. “We seek out writers, primarily from the Midwest,” says Managing Editor Maryann Lawrence, “but welcome writers outside the Midwest as long as the writing has some relation to the region — be that setting, plot, or character.”
“We would love to hear someone say, I just read a random story in The Dolomite Review and was blown away,” Lawrence shares. “And, in fact, we are delighted that someone said exactly that! Considering this is our first issue, we are tickled with the feedback we are receiving. We hope every issue gets this response.”
Representing Readers & The Midwest
That kind of reader response is key to the mission of The Dolomite Review. “We noticed a need for a literary journal that appeals to readers primarily,” says Lawrence. “So many magazines are written for authors, other publishers, editors, and those in the publishing community, bogged down with reviews and how-tos and appeals to writers. We want to bring readers into the fold and provide them a space online that is free of writer-centric content. Additionally, we just feel like there is not enough Midwest representation in publishing. And by Midwest we mean sensibilities and lifestyle.”
Readers first encounter that Midwest sensibility in the name of the publication. Lawrence notes, “We considered the word dolomite might mislead people into thinking we were named after the Dolomite mountain range in Italy.” While Lawrence does have Italian roots, the name actually refers to the limestone rock formations on Michigan’s Drummond Island. “The island is the most easterly point in the U.P.,” she explains, “and, while Canada is just beyond, it’s the views of Lake Huron that really ignite the imagination. We think the atmosphere of those rocks looking over the vast lake, alternately brutally cold and awesomely beautiful, a place that takes your breath away, is what we are trying to achieve with the literary works we publish, reflecting the beauty and the brutality of life in the Midwest.”
Masthead Expertise & Submissions
The masthead of The Dolomite Review includes Managing Editor Maryann Lawrence, who lives in Michigan and is an award-winning journalist and author of two books, Season of the Great Bird and Uneventful. For the past thirty years, her short stories, poetry and essays have been published in journals and magazines throughout the U.S. Joining Lawrence is Lead Technician Sarah Penrose, who keeps the website up and humming while also studying User Experience Research & Design at the University of Michigan. She has experience with web and mobile design, user research, and site development. Rounding out their expertise is Editor Katherine Bird, who has also worked with Mayapple Press [once based in Michigan; currently upstate New York] and Sky & Telescope.
For writers wanting to find a home for their works, submissions can be sent through The Dolomite Review website (no direct email submissions). They first go through the managing editor who decides which will be accepted. Next, they go to the editor for line editing and proofreading. “We wish we could provide feedback, but there are just too many submissions and too few staff to make that happen right now,” says Lawrence. “As for response time, we aim for two weeks.”
Storytelling for Readers
Readers clicking over to The Dolomite Review can expect a welcome mat! “We have purposely created The Dolomite Review with simple, clean lines for a comfortable reading experience,” says Lawrence. “We are ad-free, so no disruptive side bars. We offer subscription, but you don’t have to subscribe to visit. There are no pop-up blockers. Just excellent writing. Storytelling is our niche so narrative form poetry is generally featured. We don’t go for enigmatic poetry or any kind of poem that requires an explanation. The short stories and essays we publish are engaging; we generally do not publish genre-specific work such as horror or romance. Just plain old great storytelling.”
Contributors to the first issue include Diane Scholl, Darcy Hicks, Steve Gardiner, Melissa Crandall, Grace Fabbri, John Lennon, Susan Swartwout, Elisabeth Crago, Brian Cronwall, and JoAnne Tillemans.
Surprises & Goals
Reflecting on the start-up for The Dolomite Review, Lawrence considers what she has learned, which can also include pleasant surprises. “Finding enough people to subscribe to a magazine that isn’t published yet was a lesson I did not expect to learn. Same for contributors. It’s a lot to ask a writer to submit to a magazine that (1) doesn’t pay and (2) hasn’t been published/proven. I am really surprised by how many people did one or the other or both.”
Going forward with The Dolomite Review, Lawrence is hopeful for continued growth and mutual support. “We want to, of course, increase our reach, and draw in more excellent writers. We are hoping to create an anthology every couple of years. We would love to have a homebase – a physical office to call our own so that we might also be able to offer residency programs, readings, writer workshops, maybe bring in guest editors. We are thinking about a podcast or creating audio for each issue. The sky is the limit, really, as far as future goals.”
The mission of Rogue Agent: A Journal for Work that Inhabits the Body is to center the body as a site of truth, risk, and resistance — inviting poetry and artwork that explores pleasure, pain, sensuality, vulnerability, and power. Guest Editor AllisonBlevins introduces Issue 130, who shares, “The poems I chose were a balm to me as I continue to navigate chemo after a breast cancer diagnosis [. . . ] I hope you will all find something in this issue that speaks to the hope you need today.”
Contributors offering hope in this issue include Travis Chi Wing Lau, Justin Lacour, Amie Whittemore, Emily Hockaday, Shae, Chloe Yelena Miller, Scott Ferry, Susan Michele Coronel, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Daniel Edward Moore, and Donna Vorreyer.
By reclaiming sensitivity as courage and confronting how bodies are written over by oppression, Rogue Agent seeks to dismantle those forces and amplify embodied truth through daring, intimate work.
Doomer Anthology edited by Dana Stamps II and Jeff Green Green Stamps Books, January 2026
To open a collection of poems, short stories, and essays such as this is to feel the locks click shut behind you. There is no turning back. The pages within are a catalog of endings: the end of stable coastlines, the end of predictable seasons, the end of the vast, intricate web of human and non-human life we once, perhaps naively, called civilization. The overall mood is not one of anger, nor of frantic action, but of a profound and settled hopelessness. It is the sound of a long, slow exhale after the struggle has already been lost. This is the Doomer Anthology. It is not a warning. It is a eulogy.
Contirbutors to this eulogy include: E.G. Willy, Alison Stone, Rick Smith, Judith Sanders, William J. Ripple et al, James Reed, Sandy Raschke, Paul-John Ramos, David Radavich, Q.R. Quasar, Marge Piercy, Andy Oram, Wes Lee, Louise Kantro, Mary-Lane Kamberg, Paul Hostovsky, Kathleen Hellen, Hugh Findlay, Kate Falvey, Alan Elyshevitz, Joe P. L. Davidson et al, and Claudia Buckholts.
Readers can find purchasing information and sample works on the Doomer Anthology website.
And just like that, we’re already turning the final page on the first month of 2026. With January winding down, a flurry of deadlines is coming up fast—both at the end of this month and the very start of February. But no need to stress. As always, NewPages is here with a fresh roundup of currently open submission opportunities so you won’t miss a thing.
And of course, we can’t forget that little dash of inspiration.
Inspiration Prompt: To Become the Sky
Expectations can be a double‑edged sword, can’t they? From the pressures and demands you place on yourself to those others place, impose, and project on you. Expectations that can help drive you forward but can also mire you in a bog of what others desire—or make you feel like a failure if you know, in reality, you cannot possibly live up to them.
For this week’s prompt, step outside those expectations—every one of them. Imagine what might be possible if you loosened your grip on who you are supposed to be and opened your palms to who you could be. Let yourself become vast, borderless, atmospheric. What would your writing look like if you expanded instead of compressed? If you rose above the narrow corridors of obligation and drifted instead toward the wide blue of possibility?
Write from the perspective of someone—yourself, a character, a voice, a place, a creature—who has decided to become the sky. How do they shed the weight of expectation? What dissolves, what remains, and what becomes newly visible from this impossible altitude? Consider how the sky changes throughout a day, a season, a storm. How does transformation invite both clarity and opacity?
“In this final issue of Kaleidoscope,” the editors share, “we pause to reflect on how far we have come during our journey. We’ve made significant strides to change perceptions of disability and championed the talents of countless writers and artists.”
It seems fitting that a theme unifying these final pieces is movement — specifically, forward motion. While some are obvious from their titles, “We Walk” by Kirk Lawson and “Falling Forward” by Adam B. Perry, others reveal, through more subtle narratives, the need to advance, evolve, and adapt.
“Papa was a Rollin’” is the featured essay and provides a heartfelt glimpse into the life of a child who has only ever known a father who uses a wheelchair. She saw the chair as “boundless” but encountered those who viewed it as a “limitation.” The chair provides access, but the world is often inaccessible. Through the ups and downs, she has been along for the ride, admiring his humor, strength, grit, and determination. All of which have shaped the woman she’s become.
“Seasons are ever-changing throughout life,” the editors close, “and we are grateful to those who have been with us for so many years. While this is the end of our journey, we know you will continue the mission to explore the experience of disability and change perceptions moving forward. Thank you for being an essential part of our story.”
Editor Steven Harvey open River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative 27.1 (Fall 2025):“’The one thing I will not tamper with in this class,’ I tell my students when I teach the art of the personal essay, ‘is your voice.’” Harvey goes on to examine the role and value of voice in writing as sacred and unteachable no matter its form, but also the political vulnerability of voice and the role of literary magazines to safeguard the human voice.
Contributing voices to this newest issue include Jim Daniels, Shannon Cram, Corrie Williamson, Chelsea B. DesAutels, Phong Nguyen, Allison Field Bell, L.C. Killingsworth, Emma Bolden, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Jenny Molberg, Rachel Cline, Lynda Rushing, Gary Fincke, Beth Ann Fennelly, and Asena McKeown.
River Teeth is also home to Beautiful Things, a weekly online magazine of micro-essays of 250 words or fewer. Readers can subscribe for free and “find beauty, curiosity, and meaning in the everyday.” Recent contributors include Andreea Boboc, Lauren Fath, Allison Kirkland, James T. Morrison, H.K. Hummel, Jessica Franken, Allison Field Bell, Natalie Goldberg, Kat Moore, Jeannine Pitas, and many more.
Published by Press 53, Prime Number Magazine celebrates its 16th Anniversary! Prime Number is home to distinctive poetry, short fiction, and flash nonfiction from writers around the world. Each issue of Prime Number features winners of their free, monthly 53-Word Story Contest, regular content selected by guest editors, and information about upcoming guest editors. Their annual September edition features the winners of the Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry and Short Fiction that are open for entries January through March each year, and the winners of their two free contests: the monthly 53-Word Story Contest and the “Prime 53 Poem” Summer Challenge.
The newest issue, #281 (Jan-Apr 2026), features selections from guest editors Maura Way (poetry), Gerry Wilson (short fiction), and Shuly Xóchitl Cawood (flash nonfiction), who selected works by Bethany Bruno, Melissa Ostrom, David M. Alper, Dustin P. Brown, Maureen Martinez, Sarah Sorensen, Laura Freudig, B.P. Gallagher, and Steven Schwartz. Readers can also enjoy the publication’s 2026 Pushcart Prize Nominees.
Plume publishes the best contemporary poetry: national and international voices in monthly issues with twelve poets contributing one poem each. Plume Issue #173 (January 2026) includes a portfolio of poems by George Bradley with additional contributions by Samuel Amadon, Marisa Martínez Pérsico, Lindsay Stuart Hill, Joseph Campana, J.T. Barbarese, Fleda Brown, Cynthia Cruz, Charles Bernstein, Bruce Bond, and Alan Shapiro. Readers can also find commentary from authors in the section “The Poets and Translators Speak” as well as “On the Prose Poem, the Fragment, Literary Influence, and Kafka’s Ears: An Interview with Peter Johnson” by Cassandra Atherton, and the essay, “A Love Letter to Longing” by Alice B Fogel. Ann Leamon reviews the atmosphere is not a perfume it is odorless by Matthew Cooperman.
This is a weekend for bundling up in layers and staying indoors with a steady supply of hot drinks and soup. Here in the Midwest, we’re heading into subzero windchills—never fun when stepping outside means being instantly frozen. Take care of yourselves and stay safe if you’re in an area experiencing dramatic temperature dips or snowstorms.
NewPages has the perfect remedy to keep you cozy and creative. Enjoy a weekly dose of writing inspiration and more than 100 venues where you can submit your work. It’s more than enough to keep you active, busy, and out of the chill.
Inspiration Prompt: It’s All in the Breed
I share my life (and my blankets) with two dachshunds—stubborn, affectionate little tunneling machines who believe the universe revolves around snuggle time and whatever scent trail they’ve decided is more important than my plans for the day. Dachshunds were bred to hunt badgers underground… which explains both their determination and my yard.
For this week’s prompt, imagine a world where human emotions and habits are inherited directly from the animals we love or live with. Not shapeshifting, not fables—just a strange rule of the universe: your temperament comes from your household species or breed.
Since 1998, OffCourseis a quarterly journal for poetry, criticism, reviews, stories, and essays edited by Ricardo Nirenberg for readers to enjoy open-access, online. OffCourse December 2025 offers a diverse literary collection exploring surreal imagery, memory, place, identity, and the intersections of the everyday with the mythic and psychological. Contributors inlcude Sarah Carleton, Linda Fischer, Louis Gallo, Lois Greene Stone, Mark Jackley, Miriam Kotzin, Ricardo Nirenberg, Claire Scott, Ian C. Smith, J. R. Solonche, Daniel P. Stokes, R. L. Swihart, and Jim Tilley. Readers will also find the publication’s full archive online.
The Winter 2025 Issue of Humana Obscura features work from 54 contributors from around the globe, including cover art by Brigitte B. Burckhardt, back cover art by Rose-Marie Keller-Flaig, interviews with artist Carol Haynes and poets Abby Harding and Sukriti Patny, and spotlights on the work of poet David Sleeth-Keppler and photographer Brooke Ryan.
Other contributors include Alexandra Karnasopoulos, Anne Kulou, Barbara Hickson, Beverley Sylvester, Caroline Brown, Christen Lee, Cynthia Anderson, D A Angelo, Debbie Strange, Dena Heitfield Smith, Diane Perazzo, Ellen Rowland, Ethan Pines, James Toupin, Jason Dean, Jason Harlow, Jen Lothrigel, Jennifer Gurney, Jil St. Ledger-Roty, Jim Stewart, Karah Snyder, Kiera Obbard, Kristine Amundrud, Lauren Chavez, Lee-Anne Schmidt, Lisa Perkins, Louis Talbot, Luke Levi, Melissa Dennison, Michael J. Kolb, Mike Taylor, Najib Joe Hakim, Nicholas Olah, Robert MacLean, Ron C. Moss, Ruth Sharman, Sarah Banks, Sarah Hewitt, Sarah Lilja, Shutta Crum, Sierra Glassman, Silvia Felizia, Soumya Mukherjee, Talitha May, Thomas Smith, Xenia Tran, and Yana Kane.
It’s no secret that I am particularly drawn to music and lyrics and can find myself being inspired by them. Whether it’s a particular turn of phrase that seems magical, a sung truth that cuts to the very core, or just an idea that gets me questioning or thinking—music stays with me. For a long time, the lyrics “That was a river / this is the ocean” seemed to haunt my mind.
What better fodder for inspiration than to consider bodies of water and compare them to emotional depths?
In the song by Colin Raye, these words offer a masterclass in emotional scale. Encountering an old flame, the singer reassures his wife that his past feelings were merely a river, while his current devotion is the ocean. It’s a striking image: a river has a beginning and an end; it follows a set path. But an ocean is an ecosystem. It is deep, immeasurable, and powerful enough to reshape the very coastline of our lives.
The World of Emotional Waterways
click image to open flyer
Imagine, for a moment, a world where our internal landscapes were literal. In this reality, emotions aren’t just felt—they are quantified by volume, flow, and depth.
The Droplet: A fleeting moment of affection, easily evaporated.
The Brook: A light infatuation, noisy and cheerful, but shallow enough to walk through.
The River: A serious attachment. It has a strong current and a clear direction, but it is ultimately contained by its banks.
The Ocean: True, transformative love. It is a vast expanse where you can no longer see the shore you left behind.
In such a world, how would we talk to one another? Would we warn friends of a “flash flood” of grief? Consider the tension that arises when someone offering an “ocean” of commitment meets someone experiencing an emotional “drought.”
Creative Prompt: Map Your Current
Whether you are a writer, painter, or digital artist, use this “Hydrology of the Heart” to create something new this week.
The Challenge: Write, draw, paint, or collage something that treats emotions as waterways—measurable, navigable, and capable of reshaping the land around them. What happens when your “ocean” meets someone else’s “river”?
Never Miss a Spark of Inspiration
If this prompt got your creative gears turning, you’ll love what we send out every week. Writing is a solitary journey, but you don’t have to scout the terrain alone.
The Latest Literary News: Stay updated on new book releases and must-read literary magazines.
Curated Bookstores: Discover independent gems to visit on your next trip.
A Sampling of Submission Opportunities: All subscribers receive a small sampling of current submission opportunities from literary magazines, upcoming events, and indie publishers
🔓 Unlock 100+ Submission Opportunities
Ready to see your name in print? Paying subscribers receive exclusive early access to a curated database of 100+ submission opportunities. Every single lead is vetted by our team before posting, so you can spend less time researching and more time writing.
Published by Nostalgia Press, HEART literary journal hails from the lowcountry of South Carolina, with a penchant for modern prose poetry, poems that give life and motion to moods, messages from simple moments, and sparkling lines from meditative thought. The newest issue shines a spotlight on HEART Poetry Award winner Melinda Coppola for her work “Rinsing Blueberries.” Other contributors include Amber Rose Crowtree, Jenny Bates, Lexi Deeter, Jane Maria Robbins, Nicole Grace, Carrie Esposito, Julia H. Fonte, Lori Goff, Jacob Friesenhah, Richard Eric Johnson, Matthew Francis Mazzoni, Gib Prettyman, Shanina Carmichael, Nichola Viglietti, J. Anthony Jackson, and Connie Lakey Martin.
HEART also publishes HEARTPosts online, true personal experiences or personal opinions about how you manage to keep heart in your journey: the good, maybe bad, but insightful. Recent contributors include Ronald L. Nester, Sr., Harriette Graham Cannon, and Connie Lakey Martin.
Collateral online journal showcases literary and visual art that reveals the impact of military service and violent conflict beyond the combat zone. Take a moment to appreciate the artistry and humanity expressed by the newest issue’s contributors: Callie S. Blackstone, Anna Bowles, Benjamin Busch, Ryan Calo, Tommy Cheis, Julie Friar, Enrique Gautier, Gloria D. Gonsalves, Romney Grant, Christina Hauck, Wayne Karlin, Jayant Kashyap, Anja Mujić, Christian Paige, Madeleine Schneider, Thomas Short, Rachael Trotter, Bunkong Tuon, and Andy Young. Artwork by Alex Kuno.
Readers can also still catch Collateral‘s 2025 Pushcart Nominations by Anna Bowles, Gloria D. Gonsalves, Ryan McCarty, Wayne Karlin, Francisco Martínezcuello, and Bunkong Tuon.
The reading period for Collateral 10.2 is open until March 1, 2026.
Green Linden Press announces the launch of their imprint, Salon des Refusés. Borrowing the name of the 1863 exhibit of artists rejected from the prestigious Paris Salon, which included such luminaries as Manet, Pissarro, Rousseau, and Whistler, Salon des Refusés champions projects that, for various reasons, have remained unseen — those deemed too strange, too unmarketable, those chronically rejected, those overlooked because of the competitive nature of publishing, and those simply abandoned.
The first three titles of Salon des Refusés are available for pre-order: Landfill by André Le Mont Wilson [pictured]; Études for the Image, or The Cinder Path by Zach Savich; As Wind Rounds Sandstone, as Ice Sections Schist by H. L. Hix. Titles can be purchased individually or all three in a bundle for $40.
Upcoming Deadline: March 15 Four Deadlines for Poets! First up: the Washington Prize for a full-length collection. Submit January 15 – March 15. The Word Works then reads submissions for the Hilary Tham Capital Collection, the Tenth Gate Prize, International Editions, and our Open Reading Period. Each uses a different selection method, and our taste is omnivorous! View our flyer and visit our website for more information.
Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.
Can you tell a gripping story in 300 words or fewer? Our Flash Fiction Writing Competition is open now. Ten winners, chosen by Tania Hershman, will be published in the Fish Anthology 2026. New and established writers welcome. Enter today, challenge yourself, and let a small story make a big impact. Deadline approaching—don’t miss your chance to be read, worldwide open submissions now. Learn more and submit here: fishpublishing.com.
Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.
Application Deadline: March 1 Imagine finding a low-residency MFA program filled with smart, passionate writers who are as dedicated as you are. A program where you develop your talent together and cheer each other on. Where you throw your whole heart into becoming publishing, producing writers—together. spalding.edu/mfa
Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.
The Colorado Authors League (CAL) supports and promotes its community of published writers while connecting with and adding value to the reading world. Formed in 1931, authors become members to: keep up with changes in the craft of writing, publishing, and marketing, gain greater visibility for their writing, join a group of like-minded people who love writing. View our flyer to see new releases by members and learn more at our website: coloradoauthors.org.
Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.
Deadline: March 1, 2026 Apple in the Dark is seeking fiction and creative nonfiction submissions for the Spring 2026 issue. Submission deadline: March 1. Word limit: 1,500 per piece (up to three pieces per submission). Visit duotrope.com/duosuma/submit/apple-dark-1504B to learn more.
Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.
Deadline: May 25, 2026 Livingston Press’s fourth annual Changing Light Prize for a novel-in-verse is accepting submissions. No entry fee. Send complete manuscript to [email protected] in a Word file. Include your bio in the file. View flyer or visit website for more information.
Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.
The National Indie Excellence® Awards honor outstanding English-language books from self-published authors, indie presses, and university publishers. Now in its 20th year, NIEA celebrates excellence across all genres. Eligible books must be published within two years of the March 31 deadline. See flyer to learn more and submit at our website.
Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.
Cleaver Magazine Issue 52 Winter 2025-2026 showcases the Visual Poetics Contest Winners: First Place “Box of Air” by Katrina Roberts; Second Place “MASH (a Cento Game for Poetry Lovers)” by Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose; and Third Place “Untitled Mural, Acrylic on Four Vertical Metal Panels, 6’ x 8’, c. 1979” by Cindy Hill.
The issue also includes poetry by Robyn Schelenz, Simon Parker, David John Rosenheim, Ivy Hoffman, Jim Stewart; fiction by KSM, N.D. Brown, Andrew V. Lorenzen, Marc Kaufman, Terri Lewis; micro fiction and nonfiction by Barbara Westwood Diehl, Louella Lester, Emily Rinkema, Aurora Bonner, Preeti Talwai, Sydney Lea, Bobby Crace, Kevin Spaide, Beth Gilstrap, Claudia Monpere; nonfiction by Vivienne Germain, Sara Quinn Rivara, and the visual narrative “Connecticus Diggs, Cultural Detective Episode 4: Letters” by Clifford Thompson.
Cleaver Magazine is free to read online and offers a full online archive and free subscriptions.
Can you believe January is already halfway gone? This week we sent out our eLitPak newsletter—if you missed it, you can catch up online here.
The weather’s still doing its 2026 flip-flop—50s one day, teens the next. Some things never change! One thing you can count on, though, is NewPages bringing you a fresh roundup of submission opportunities and inspiration every week. Happy writing and submitting!
Inspiration Prompt: Negativity is All in the Head
We talk about “negative” temperatures, but what does that really mean? For some, cold means the 40s or 50s. For others, it’s subzero, where the air bites and the world freezes solid. Did you know that when it gets extremely cold, the atmosphere can become too dry for snow? The colder it gets, the less likely you’ll see those flakes…and the more likely you should be slathering yourself in moisturizer.
This week, imagine life in a world below zero. What would change for you? What new skills would you need to survive? Now take it further: what if your attitude controlled the temperature? The more negative your thoughts, the colder your surroundings become. Could your mindset freeze rivers, frost windows, or plunge a city into an endless winter?
Write, sketch, or create around the idea of negativity—how it shapes environments, relationships, and survival.
Now that you are perfectly inspired, and perfectly frigid, keep going to find a home for your work.
Founded in 2016 in Joshua Tree, Cholla Needles publishes monthly issues showcasing ten writers in depth, including international voices and translations. The magazine focuses on established and emerging writers who have a distinctive voice and communicate well with readers. The January 2026 issue features works by Jason Jones, Arvilla Fee, Marlene M. Tartaglione, Bonnie Bostrom, Duane Anderson, Joseph Hutchison, Christien Gholson, Zita Murányi, Royal Rhodes, Justin Hollis, J. Malcolm Garcia, David Larsen, and Jonathan Ferrini. Cholla Needles is open year-round to submissions of poetry, short stories, creative essays, art and photographs.
The Winter 2025 issue of Boulevard includes 2023 Fiction Contest winner Mary Elizabeth Dubois, 2023 Nonfiction Contest winner Phillip Barcio, and 2023 Poetry Contest winner Lucinda Trew. It also features a Boulevard Craft Interview with Chelsea T. Hicks by Daniel J. Musgrave and an essay by Devin Thomas O’Shea, along with new fiction from Cole Chamberlain, Emerson Henry, Zehra Nabi, Jude Whiley, and Anthony Yarbrough, new poetry from Claressinka Anderson, Carrie Beyer, Colby Cotton, Tiara Dinevska-McGuire, Kindall Fredricks, Sammy Lê, and Anna Tomlinson, and translations of Luciana Jazmín Coronado by Allison deFreese, another translation of Roxana Crisólogo by Dr. Kim Jensen and Judith Santopietro, and essays by Brandi Ocasio, Riley Rockford, and Damieka Thomas. Cover art by August Lamm.
Due to the passing of a loved one, I have been spending more and more time jumping through what feels like the “phone Olympics” whenever I need to handle affairs or set things up. Going through the often-frustrating phone menu systems, waiting on hold only to get cut off before ever reaching a person, or even dealing with people who just refuse to be kind and helpful—it got me thinking about that little old thing we know as the dial tone.
How can that hollow sound be used to inspire your writing and art?
Inspiration Prompt: A Dial Tone Conversation
In an era of instant messaging and constant connectivity, the act of making a phone call has become a strange, often frustrating ritual. We navigate endless automated menus, parley with digital “gatekeepers,” and endure hold music that feels like it’s looping into eternity.
But there is a specific, haunting moment in this process that we rarely stop to examine: the dial tone.
The Echo of Something Unfinished
What happens when the promise of a human voice falls through? You wait through the ringing, hoping for a “hello,” only to be met with that flat, rhythmic hum. In that moment, the connection is severed, leaving you in a digital limbo.
To some, that sound is the ultimate symbol of modern isolation—a reminder of the barriers between us and the help or companionship we seek. To others, it might be a moment of relief, a sudden exit from a conversation they weren’t ready to have.
Ask yourself:
Is the dial tone the end of a conversation, or the start of one that never happened?
Is it a lonely sound, or a blank canvas?
What does the “machine gatekeeper” say about how we value each other’s time?
We want you to take this feeling—the frustration, the rhythm, or the silence—and turn it into art. Let the dial tone speak through your preferred medium:
Fiction: Write a story that begins the moment the line goes dead.
Poetry: Capture the cadence of the dial tone in your meter.
Visual Art: Create a collage or photograph that represents “the machine gatekeeper.”
Multimedia: Compose a short track or film centered around the drone of a disconnected line.
Creative Tip: Sometimes the best work comes from the most mundane frustrations. If you’re feeling stuck, try recording a dial tone and listening to it for three minutes. What images come to mind?
Never Miss a Spark of Creativity
If you found value in this prompt, there is plenty more where that came from. Our community thrives on the intersection of literature, art, and the tiny moments of daily life that inspire them.
Publishing essays weekly online, bioStories features literary essays portraying ordinary and influential lives, revealing moments of grace through vivid, empathetic word portraits. Recent essays include “Attempting Fate” by Adam Perry, “The Gymnast” by Mark Lucius, “FedEx: When You Absolutely, Positively Need That Third Job” by Patrick D. Hahn, “Rocket 88” by Sydney Lea, and “The Scottish Play” by Naomi DeMarinis. Readers will also delight in reading bioStories 2025 Pushcart Nominees: Elizabeth Bird for “On Love, War, and Loss: A Life in Three Acts” and Lee Jeffers Brami for “My Grandmother’s Secret.“
bioStories accepts submissions of nonfiction prose submissions only 500–7500 words (their typical piece runs an average of 2500 words). bioStories is also always on the look-out for art that is representative of their mission and that fits well with essays they feature as well as cover art for digital issues and digital/print anthologies. See the bioStories website for more information.
Wordrunner eChapbooks is a hybrid of online literary journal and chapbook collections. Their 56th issue, The Alice Project by David Hadbawnik, is excerpted from a longer work, Dolores Park: A Memoir of the 1990s’ Bay Area Art Scene, in which the author reflects on his younger, insecure self struggling to find his voice. Hadbawnik’s alter ego, Horner, strives to find his place in a community recently gutted by the AIDS crisis and grappling with widespread gentrification wrought by the dot-com bubble. He falls in with an eccentric group of dancers, musicians, poets, and artists of all kinds. Like the city, the Alice Project becomes a world unto itself, with moments of the sublime and absurd, triumph and failure, love and loss. The chapbook may be read online here or in a Kindle edition.
Also available online are all previous Wordrunner eChapbooks publications: 28 fiction, 8 CNF/memoir, and 5 poetry collections, each by one author — plus 15 anthologies by multiple authors and 3 micro-prose issues.
Submissions for the annual themed anthology will be open January 1 through February 28, 2026. More details here.
The January 2026 issue of The Lake now online featuring new poetry by J. Ajula, Rick Christiansen, Patrick Deeley, Carrie Farrar, Fin Fearn, William Ogden Haynes, Gabrielle Munslow, J. R. Solonche, Hannah Stone, Kamil Zaszkowski. The Lake also offers book reviews of Parch by Menna Elfyn, Soulful Dancer by William Ferris and Jianqing Zheng, and Singing the Forge by G. H. Mosson. The Lake’s unique feature ‘One Poem Reviews’ invites poets to send poems from recently published collections, this month spotlighting works by Elizabeth C. Garcia, LindaAnn LoSchiavo, Daniell McMahon, and Charles Rammelkamp.
Allium: A Journal of Poetry & Prose from Columbia College Chicago’s Department of English and Creative Writing publishes provocative, evocative, and bold literary works, interviews, and review, offering two online issues (Fall and Summer) and one print issue (Spring) as well as a podcast with new episodes on the first and third Friday of every month.
Allium Fall 2025 can be read online with poetry by Kenyatta Rogers, James Thomas Stevens, Hoa Nguyen, Damen O’Brien, Nick Raske, David Trinidad, Denise Duhamel, Hilary Sideris, Daniel Morris, Mel Alexander, Olivia Cronk, Anh P. Le, JeFF Stumpo, Danne Wendel, Tara Hollander, Bernard Welt, Simone Muench & Jackie K. White, Zaneta Lockwood, Nathaniel Santiago, Max Zhang, Candice M. Kelsey, Tim Hunt, Priyanuj Mazumdar, Thi Nguyen, Ally Feisel, Aiden Fijal, Colin Bailes, roberto harrison, Kailie Foley, Katelynn Bishop, Katie Cain, Nicole Tallman, Isabella Balta, Jeanette Kelleher; fiction by François Bereaud, Ann Graham, K Tyler, David Gonzalez, Madison Garbuz, Cody Kucker, Meghan Arenz, Mary Ann Presman, Emiliano Lievano, Jacqueline Kolosov, Paul Lewellan, Dena Pruett, Emma Grace, Yance Wyatt, Danne Wendel, Shaymaa Atwa, Katie Collins-Guinn, Gemini Wahhaj, Charlie Wade, Daniel Webre, Paul Holler, Ruth Ann Dandrea, Natalie Hernandez; and nonfiction by Louise Heller, Vi McMahon, Naila Buckner, Kenyatta Rogers, Gary DeCoker, Steve Weed, Karen Hindin, and Harvey Lieberman.
2River is an independent press offering free, innovative, print-ready poetry literary magazines as well as individually authored chapbooks. The 2River View Winter 2026 issue features new works by Forrest Rapier, George Burns, Erin Carlyle, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Kimberly Gibson-Tran, Kathryn Gilmore, Sarah Kersey, Megan O’Patry, Lynne Potts, Christianna Soumakis, and Garrett Stack. Authors also provide audio recordings, so readers can download and print the publication, listen to it online and via SoundCloud, and access the publication’s archive of issues and chapbooks.
Welcome to the first submissions roundup of 2026! We hope you enjoyed a fun and relaxing winter holiday season. We’re back to help you keep your writing and submission goals going strong—and to spark your creativity with a weekly dose of inspiration.
Inspiration Prompt: What is a Living Wage?
“There is an apple in the world for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” — Rock My World
Minimum wage and living wage are not the same thing—and rarely even close. In the early 2000s, economists estimated that a true living wage for the average American would hover around $22 an hour. Two decades later, the gap between what people earn and what it costs to live has only widened.
We know the arguments: raise wages, cut jobs, hike prices. It feels like an endless cycle. But what does “enough” really look like?
Using your own experiences or observations, what do you think a true living wage is—and what would it take to achieve it?
Explore what happens when the concept of “living wage” becomes literal: what if wages determined how long you live?
Imagine a world where wages are tied to something other than money—time, health, happiness, or even art.
Visualize the symbols of “need” versus “greed”: apples, scales, empty wallets, overflowing vaults.
Tell the story of a character who earns their living in an unconventional way—or who fights for fairness in a system stacked against them.
Once you have finished your creation, keep going to find a home for your work.
From Consequence Volume 17.2 Letter from the Editors: “As many writers are told, having a child play an integral role in a narrative or poem can be challenging. Their finite worldview, inability to grasp complexities, and narrow range of expressions can handicap the ideas and experiences one may want to articulate. However, as the editors read the pieces that would eventually be included in this volume, many of which have children in them, they were reminded that this potential handicap can also be a powerful tool. Unlike adults, children (or child-like characters) are often free from facades and other traits that can convolute meaning, so can offer a less encumbered, more direct view of an idea or experience. This view can be a formidable artistic tool when dealing with complex subjects, which would certainly include the nuanced and emotionally-charged matters of war and its consequences.”
Published at Suffolk University, the newest issue of Salamander features 2025 Fiction Contest First Place Winner “Scheherazade in the Tropics” by Ivan Suazo and Second Place Winner “The Wild Hunt” by Andrew Joseph Kane as selected by Final Judge Helen Phillips. Readers will also find additional fiction by Bizzy Coy and Kate Lister Campbell, creative nonfiction by Gwen Niekamp, Jillian McKelvey, Sarah C. Baldwin, Acie Clark, and Kristina Garvin, with an art portfolio by Catherine Graffam.
For those looking for more poetry, Salamander 60 offers much to appreciate, with works by Mk Smith Despres, Angie Macri, Hana Damon-Tollenaere, Ansel Elkins, Anastasia Vassos, Emma Bolden, Jonathan Greenhause, Tiffany Promise, Laura Cesarco Eglin, Jane Donohue, Christian Paulisich, Richard Lyons, Jehanne Dubrow, Jill Michelle, Connemara Wadsworth, Eneida P. Alcalde, Allie Hoback, Hope F. Wabuke, Rebecca Foust, Jackie Delaney, Eben E.B. Bein, Bunkong Tuon, Christy Lee Barnes, Emily Schulten, Jeffrey Thompson, Cecil Sayre, Shana Hill, Jeff McRae, Michelle Matz, Dimitri Reyes, David Thoreen, Daniel Gaughan, Carolene Kurien, Sandra Marchetti, Francis Lunney, Julia Lisella, Darren C. Demaree, Gemma Cooper-Novack, Kunjana Parashar, Jonathan B. Aibel, Hanaa Ahmad Jabr, Wadaq Qais, Jennifer Jean, Javen Tanner, Sonya Schneider, and Dina Folgia.
Resolutions for the New Year? We’ve done that. Reviewing 2025? Covered. So how do we start 2026 off right? By chasing the concept of fresh.
One of my favorite moments in the Anne of Green Gables miniseries (with Megan Follows as Anne) is when her teacher reminds her that “tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it… yet.” Isn’t that the perfect spark for inspiration?
Inspiration Prompt: Fresh
Forget the resolutions destined to fizzle by February. Instead, picture this: a day that hasn’t asked anything of you yet. No mistakes—yet. No worn edges. Just possibility, bright and uncreased.
This week’s challenge is to capture that sense of renewal. Begin with something newly emerging—a scent, a bruise, a rumor, a memory resurfacing, a sprout breaking soil, a relationship resetting, a place you’ve returned to after too long away. Let “freshness” be more than newness: explore what is raw, recently touched, just‑changed, or changed again.
Ask yourself:
How does something become fresh?
How does it lose that quality?
What happens in the moment the world feels washed clean—or when you wish it would?
Write, sketch, compose, or collage from that first spark of renewal or disruption. Let your work carry the bright sting of something just beginning.
💡 Want prompts like this delivered every week? Subscribe to our newsletter for fresh inspiration, new lit mag issues, book recommendations, and submission opportunities for writers and artists across genres. 👉 Subscribe now
The newest issue of Gargoyle online invites readers to enjoy new poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by nearly 100 authors, in addition to audio of authors reading their own works, including Maxine Clair, James Norcliffe, Mark Ari, as well as video works by Carl Gopalkrishnan and Tim G. Young. Two interviews feature Victor Armando Cruz Chavez, interviewed by Lillian O. Haynes, and Edward Hirsch, interviewed by By Gregg Shapiro. Gargoyle #12 also hosts artwork by Barbara DeCesare, Alexis Rhone Fancher, Carl Gopalkrishnan (including cover image: Hello Pretty Pretty), Tammy Higgins, Jody Mussoff, William Wolak. Gargoyle #12 is open access online along with their full archive of online issues.
